From Left: Women’s coach Jason Micthell, Carmen Stuckey, Leesa Guastella, Cadence Jeffrey, Elouise Shipway, Front - Charlotte Dingle, Youth Girls coach Vic Guastella, Brianna Courts, Dakota Falls, Dillon Jagoe, Chelsea Malloy, Daniella Jagoe, Ben Courts.
By Jack Morgan
After a brilliant debut year, the Drouin Youth Girls will have the option to continue their football journey with a new women’s team.
It’s a new chapter for the Drouin Football Club, who enters the women’s team into competition next year.
Youth Girls captain Leesa Guastella has played football since she was six years old in Auskick, and said the women’s team will give girls a pathway all the way up to senior football.
“It’s awesome because we’ve just built this huge culture at Drouin with the Youth Girls and it would be a shame to let that go to waste when girls are too old to play,” she said.
The now 17-year-old captained the Youth Girls to a Grand Final this year, which was later cancelled due to COVID.
Off this success, the side has already built a strong culture only one year since its inception.
“We’ve got an awesome bunch of girls and I can’t wait to play with them in the women’s team and move that kind of culture up,” Leesa said.
Before Leesa joins the women’s team, she will have one more year to win a flag with the Youth Girls.
Drouin won six games and lost only to an undefeated Phillip Island this season.
“When we got into the Grand Final it was awesome, it was unreal but obviously the momentum kind of just dropped a little bit because we’d been postponed … but we’re ready for next year and we’re ready to start we’re we finished off,” Leesa said.
Coach Jason Mitchell said the idea to start the women’s team came from girls who were looking for the next step.
“The girls that were getting too old for youth girls, it was ‘what’s next, where do we go?’ and it makes sense just to continue what we’ve already developed there into a women’s team,” he said.
While Drouin has not officially entered a league yet, they could bring a new rivalry to the Warragul Industrials women’s team in the South Eastern Women’s Competition.
The team will start preseason training next Wednesday (17th November) and have signed on 16 players so far.
For those interested, contact the Drouin Football Club.
